The Irish are rightly renowned for their whiskeys, but that’s not the only spirit making a splash on the Emerald Isle—and beyond. The country’s natural abundance of juniper has proved a boon for gin production, and new gin distilleries are springing up faster than you can say, “Slainte!”
One of the most exciting of these upstarts is the Shed Distillery, nestled deep in the rural wilds of Drumshanbo, County Leitrim. Voted Ireland’s best gin in 2016, the distillery’s signature Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin has a fresh citrus taste with spicy notes of oriental botanicals, including—you guessed it—gunpowder tea. A tour of the facility shines a light on the fascinating production process, from slow-distilling in medieval copper pots to hand-filling and sealing in souvenir-worthy blue bottles. Just consider yourself warned—you’ll be a gin snob forever after.
